Tag Archives: New Yorker

Things I Learned this Week

Among the things I learned this week:
* Disney has an adult fashion line, Disney Couture. The line was established in 2006. (Courtesy: Rediff)

* Trend Micro now positions itself as a cloud specialist. (Courtesy: eWeek)

* Clocks don’t make many appearances in Bollywood films. (Courtesy The New Yorker)

* My car’s clock handles Leap Year dates but not daylight savings. (Courtesy: Personal experience)

* Funeral music is neither depressing nor uplifting, the two emotions I expected when starting a two-disc set titled Funeral Music. (Courtesy: V/A Funeral Music (EMI Classics))

Things I Learned this Week

Among the things I learned this week:
* Ulyana Sergeenko is a Russian designer with an incredible collection. The dresses, particularly the short ones, are fantastic. The shoe pairings are abysmal, though. (Courtesy: Russian Vogue, via Not Couture)

* The existence of halal cosmetics, and their attractiveness for vegetarians/vegans. (Courtesy: can’t remember, but The New Inquiry)

* Charlie Chaplin’s birth is shrouded in mystery and government absurdity. (Courtesy: New York Times)

* The term “bistro” may have developed from the Russian occupation of Paris in the early 19th century, when Russian soldiers would shout “быстро!” (quickly!). There is an alternative etymology, though, that involves coffee. (Courtesy: New Inquiry)

* “Roman writers subscribed to the idea of imitatio: they viewed their role as emulating and reworking earlier masterpieces. It wasn’t until the Romantic era, which introduced the notion of the author as solitary genius, that originality came to be viewed as the paramount literary virtue.” (Courtesy: New Yorker)

Things I Learned this Week

Among the things I learned this week:
* Polo is a fun and fairly simple game, which is not to say it is simple to play. (Courtesy: Great Meadow Foundation)

* The Soviet Union denied requests for garlic experts to traverse the old Silk Road to collect garlic samples, because the areas commonly included missile bases. Beginning in 1989, though, requests were approved, and this opening up is a major source of “new” (i.e., rediscovered) garlic types. (Courtesy: The Valley Table)

* Vibrators were the fifth domestic appliance to be electrified. (Courtesy: NYer)